Assistant Minister for Cities and Digital Transformation, Angus Taylor, is calling on small to medium sized enterprises (SMEs) and startups to ‘get on board’ with the government’s new Digital Marketplace platform, which went live in beta mode on 29 August.
The beta launch of the new marketplace, a product of the government’s Digital Transformation Office (DTO), has come earlier than initially scheduled.
In March, the DTO announced that a public beta version of the portal would launch before the end of 2016, with the fully-fledged portal to go live by January 2017.
The DTO has revealed that the beta version of the marketplace, which follows the launch in July of the portal’s alpha prototype, was completed in just five weeks.
According to the DTO, the beta launch of the marketplace means that government buyers can now post briefs for requirements, and sellers can respond.
According to Taylor, the new marketplace portal will simplify what had been a bureaucratic process for businesses to access government technology work.
It is also expected to provide a richer, simpler environment for technology procurement, and for businesses to provide specialist digital services to the government.
“This is an important change in the way [the] government has traditionally done business. It’s a new platform for businesses and government to work together in a creative and flexible way,” said assistant minister for Cities and Digital transformation, Angus Taylor.
“I congratulate the Digital Transformation Office on delivering the Beta product well ahead of schedule.”
The beta launch follows an open tender process initiated in March this year by the DTO, asking businesses to join a new Digital Services Professional Panel. To date, more than 220 digital service professionals are now discoverable on the Digital Marketplace.
The Digital Marketplace, which is part of the government’s $1.1 billion National Innovation and Science Agenda, will use analytics to let buyers and sellers be rated on performance, providing a lever for the continual improvement of processes and outcomes.
The Digital Marketplace is based heavily on the UK government’s portal bearing the same name, which was launched in November 2014.
